"Football is necessary, essential," said McCallum, who was instrumental in the first UAB football team taking the field in 1991. "There is a lot of support for it.

"They've attracted over 20,000 people for their football games out at Legion Field," he said. "It's not all students. It's the community also and I think this decision brings community together with UAB."

McCallum, 89, said football is very important in Alabama and UAB deserves a program of its own.

"When I came down here from New England (in 1951) they didn't ask me whether I was Republican or Democrat; they didn't ask me whether I was a Protestant or a Catholic, they wanted to know whether I was rooting for Alabama or Auburn," he said.

McCallum became the third president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1987 and served until 1993.

He said the football may not be as important as education but the sport teaches life lessons such as "it takes a team to accomplish goals."